SSNIT OBS: I queried Ernest Thompson and ordered audit on him - Former Board Chair

Former Board Chairman of SSNIT, Prof Joshua Alabi, while cautioning in an interview that the media and the general public must desist from media trial regarding the controversial SSNIT OBS contract, has by himself in the very same interview, made a startling revelation that gives fodder to the issue.

He stated that as then SSNIT Board Chairman,he had cause to issue an official query to embattled former Director-General of SSNIT Ernest Thompson, when the Board found out there was overspending in the acquisition of the infamous softwares, MyNewsGh.com can authoritatively say.

The former Board Chairman further added that it was not only a query his Board sent to Mr Ernest Thompson, but the Board also ordered an audit of the costs accumulation involved that could have made the OBS price more than double, at the time.

He was speaking to GhanaWeb’s Kwabena Kyenkyenhene on '21 minutes With KKB'.

According to him, what hindered the audit process was that they discovered the over-spending in late 2016, around November, and after the NDC lost the election, they only had to prepare handing over notes.

He said the former Director-General of the Trust Ernest Thompson spent $34m in additional cost on the contract without prior approval of the board, adding that the said expenditure items came to his board’s attention after the funds for the procurement had already been released and after management brought the bill to the Board for ratification.

So the contract which began as a $32million contract ballooned to $66 million and later to $72million in the course of four years from 2012 to 2016, under the erstwhile John Mahama administration.

“They overspent, and we queried them, and we told them that next time before you go beyond the budget make sure you seek the board’s approval.” Prof Alabi recalled.

Reports had alleged SSNIT settled on a tender that quoted $72 million for the software that is supposed to automate all the core processes in the administration of pension, although authorities now allege it received tenders to undertake the project at much cheaper prices including $9 million as MyNewsGh.com reported in the past.

But Prof Alabi, the man who is also eyeing the NDC’s flagbearership post believes overspending in itself doesn’t constitute a crime and that he was hopeful Mr Thompson will acquit himself creditably well when he has his day wherever government took him to.

“I’m not a judge, I’m not a Lawyer. I’m only telling you that Ernest Thompson will go and make his case before a proper court of law and not before the media.”

Alabi said he won’t be happy the least if the issue lands Ernest Thompson in court.



“Why do you think I will be happy that a colleague is going to court? I am very confident that Ernest Thompson will make his case and this is not the media now trying him. This is not the media trying Ernest Thompson. The court is going to try him and for that matter Ernest will make his case,” he told Kyenkyenhene of Ghanaweb.

SSNIT Board lie about arrest

The SSNIT Board had said in a press briefing that Mr Ernest Thompson had been arrested and charged with causing financial loss to the state, a declaration the Attorney General Gloria Akufo denied. She stated that they had received a docket from EOCO and were studying it.



Three other people fingered in the contract are former Head of IT Department, Caleb Kwaku Afaglo; former OBS project manager; John Hagan Mensah and Juliet Hasana Kramah of IT company, Perfect Business Systems.

Background

Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Kojo Ofori Tenkorang in August 2017 as MyNewsGh.com then reported, that the entire OBS was not functioning despite the huge money spent on it. This was later contradicted.

Mr Tenkorang said the non-functioning of the software was due to alterations made on it and some legal regime regulating their operations.

But his predecessor, Ernest Thompson had dismissed the claim at the time, saying he was aware only one module had challenges.



“When I was in office, we realized that, that particular module was not giving us the correct figures that we wanted,” he told media men.

The initial cost of the software procured to automate processes at SSNIT was $34 million when it was awarded to Perfect Business Systems and Silver Lake Consortium in 2012. But this ballooned to $72 million.